Praise the Lord for the way He made Christmas
happen. It is the wonder of His love, the demonstration of His mighty
deeds, and the act of His mercy. We are all blessed because of the
Christmas Gift that came down, wrapped in swaddling clothes. The ultimate
Christmas gift, Jesus, comes to the pauper, the peasant, the powerful, the
shepherds, the kings and the wise men alike. For those who receive the
gift that came down at Christmas by God's grace, their lives are changed
for eternity. Alice and I praise the Lord for this wondrous season.
We get to celebrate one more time this year. Alice gets overexcited with
Christmas; she gets overzealous with the gift of Christmas; she is put into
overdrive with the power and spirit of Christmas. She is provoked
to extravagant generosity by the mood and meaning of Christmas.
During our active ministries we have lived in lovely and beautiful
parsonages. The Lord blessed us with the best housings wherever we
served. During our tenure in the last church Alice decorated the
parsonage each year. Sometimes there were over 14 (more than 22 if
you count the little ones) Christmas trees including a fresh-cut 9 feet
balsam. The Parsonage was transformed in to a "Christmas
House".
After
my retirement we moved to a beautiful new town. We are blessed with a
very beautiful cottage-style home. We live in a beautiful town surrounded
by beautiful people and we are loved by a caring, concerned compassionate
Church family. Alice has down-sized on Christmas decorations but still
the house is full of Christmas decorations. The home has been a haven of
rest and peace of peace during the days of recovery and healing. I have
ben listening to Handel's Messiah and all other Classical Christmas carols and
songs. The other day I watched Christmas with the Kranks, Home Alone 2, Sweet
Home Alabama and Forrest Gump.
We
are very excited about the Worship services this coming Sunday. We will
meet for Sunday School at 9:30 AM and for worship at 10:30 AM.
We will meet for a very special service of lessons and carols at 6:30 PM,
led by Marathon Resident musician Nancy Barber, one of the sweet singers
of Jesus. There will be a mega- reception following the evening
celebration. Plan to be in the Lord's house this coming Sunday wherever
you might be. We have so much to celebrate and so much to be excited
about. We will gather for the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service on
Saturday, December 24, 2016 at 6:00 PM. Our family from Washington, DC
and Philadelphia will be with us for Christmas. We will have four of
our grandchildren to share Christmas with us. They all will be with us
for a whole week. We are thrilled - way beyond excited. Thank You
Jesus, for Christmas.
In Christmas
Joy.
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment